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"A hobo," answered Mrs. Harvey,
"is any person, man, woman, girl or
boy, who is out of work, out of
money, and nearly out of hope. A
hobo girl is any girl jobless, homeless,
moneyless, hopeless. Just as a man
hobo wanders around hunting for
work, so does the girl hobo.
"There is only this difference, the
man hobo can 'count ties' along th&
railroad,, ride in freight cars, and get
to the place where work is. The out-of-work
,girl cannot do that.
"But one fate is hers death, death
by starvation or suicide.
"No! I -forgot! There's another
and worse fate for the poor, down-and-out
girl hobo that is sin, shame
and then a more awful death.
''"There's alwavs that monster 6f
vice waiting for the out-of-york girl
waiting until she gets down to her
last penny and her hunger cries the
loudest for food.
"There are 'flop houses' for men
hoboes; soup kitchens and 'coffee
lines.' But no girl out of work has
anything to fall back on except her
own self."
"You don't look like the accepted
idea of a hobo, anyway," said L
"Your clothes are not ragged and you
don't seem to have any tomato cans
hanging about you."
"No," Mrs. Harvey answered. "But
Fve been out of work-and out of
money and I have gone Into cities
penniless and walked miles in search
of work just like men hoboes."
Bight here Mrs. Harvey's eyes nar
rowed and she asked abruptly: "What
would you do if you were in a strange
town and you did not have a job?'
I stammered a minute while I
-thought, and answered I probably
would apply at some newspaper of
fice. "And if the staffs were all filled,"
she continued, pinning me down with
her grave eyes.
"Well, there is always room in
someone's kitchen," I said.
1 don't know it," she answered,
"I have applied munberlesa times, for
kitchen work when I needed a job,'
but I did not get the job. You would
be surprised did you know the count
less number of women today who
were starving to death in this land of
abundance. They have been looking
for honest work for months perhaps
and in the meantime they have been ij
growing frailer and shabbier until
now they are just sitting In some little
back room doing something for
which, they only get enough money
to keep them-in lingering starvation.
"A man In these circumstances will
get put and tramp in the hopes of
striking something, but convention
says women must not do this. She
can starve, but she must not shatter
the conventions.
"The jobless girl is in a muchworse .
plight than the jobless man and my
heart goes out to her, not that I think
that small wages will cause a girl to
go wrong, but I hate to see them
starve, and I do see them do thai
every day. The doctors, when they
sign the death certificate, may call it
some other name, but it is just slow -starvation."
,
Mrs. Harvey conceived the idea qf
helping the "down-and-outers" while '
r&cting as recorder in Guthrie, Okla.
She was the first woman In America
to hold a public office of this sort.
"While I was there," she said, "it
seemed to me that all the best people
were those who were stumbling
about under heavy mortgages and
encumbrances on their land and
when I gave up my position I began
to devote my time to the person whq
had not been able to connect with op
portunity the hobo as you call liimf (J
"I know all of them and they come
from every station in society. They
are many college men in the ranks)
and before long there will be a- large, '
number of women who will take,1 -to
the road in search of work. WonJSaT1?
and children today are doing the
world's work, but there isn't enough:
work to keep them busy."
Mrs. Harvey is a woman with a
face which depicts character. She
--..i-i -,(.